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Before the city and county merged, there were two separate police departments. LMPD could only offer a partial answer as to where the breakdown, as they called it, happened.

The judge who cleared Chandler's conviction offered an apology on behalf of the Commonwealth Tuesday. Wednesday, LMPD did the same.

I don't know how to make it up to Mr. Chandler and the victims family because they have to go through the trial again, said assistant chief Lt. Col. Vince Robison. Except to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Detectives said a combination of forensic evidence and new interviews with old witnesses helped clear Chandler 16 years after the crime.

Chandler said in the beginning he made a false confession to police because he was coerced and felt threatened.

When asked about the procedures in place to interview suspects, Robison read directly from the police handbook.

Threats, false promises and coercion to induce suspects confessions are prohibited, said Robison. I assume it was the same policy as then.

A fingerprint left at the scene on a beer bottle, now identified as the real killers was proven in court in 1993 not to belong to Chandler. Robison said he couldn't explain why that didn't prove Chandlers innocence at the time.

You get a lot of information and have to corroborate and see if something actually happened or not, said Robison,

Marguerite Thomas with the Innocence Project, the group that helped free Chandler, said the mistakes that happened during the investigation and Chandlers trial shatter what we all hope for.

We want to believe what our parents told us that police are all good, our friends. And we want to believe every attorney for the Commonwealth, on both sides, is professional and does the best job and every judge is doing the best they can and the jury does the best they can. So when people are wrongfully convicted, it blows the whole thing up, said Thomas.

Police officials said they plan to thoroughly review the departments practices to determine where the breakdowns occurred and ensure the checks and balances are in place to prevent situations like this from happening in the future. Meanwhile, Chandler's family said for the most part, as long as he is at peace that's all that matters.

I look forward to him being less stressful, happy, able to enjoy life like most people do, said Chandlers fiancée Stacey Patterson.

Im upset. Im glad its come to life that hes able to get this new chapter going. Still anger. Still sadness, said Chandlers brother Edward Elam.

Percy Phillips, the man now charged with Brenda Whitfield's slaying, will be in court for arraignment on Monday.